sort of a basket case, sort of not.

Currently, I am trying to:

1. Improve my crappy posture, which should help my neck and shoulder problems.

2. Cut back on caffeine, also to help with my neck and shoulder (my massage therapist told me about a study she read linking caffeine to stress-related pain).

3. Lose 5 lbs so I can wear the fitted top I'm knitting without feeling like my stomach is the first thing someone sees.

4. Exercise more (see #3).

5. Not drink any beer or wine (see #3). When I complained to my husband that my unwanted weight wasn't because of retaining water, he suggested that I might be retaining beer.

6. Eat better.

7. Enjoy the summer.

8. Protect my vegetable garden from marauding deer and cats.

9. Dye 475 more skeins of yarn in the next six weeks.

Oh, and work 20 hours/week while racing towards a million deliverables all due on June 30 (thank you, federal grants), and chasing a rather busy 4.5 year old the rest of the time.

I would add "sleep more" to the list, but that seems pretty unrealistic.

I ought to be more stressed, and I'm a little sad that I'm missing out on fun summer things like camping trips, but I'm doing my best to get out of the house with the boy on our days together and do as much as possible. He is a great hiker (see #4 and #7) and is game for anything. He's insatiably curious--I feel like I've got to stuff as many diverse experiences into him now, while he's open and inquisitive about everything. I am more than a little scared of the school years and what they may do to him. I don't know why, I turned out fine, though I would've benefited from a more challenging high school for sure, but for some reason I am just afraid that school will bore the curiosity and thirst for learning right out of him.